


Treasured Memories

by adrian_kres



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia is fixed a different way, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:29:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28498338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrian_kres/pseuds/adrian_kres
Summary: They said it was amnesia, and at first, Link supposed they were right. He recognized no one—nothing. Link did not remember a single bit of his life or near death, knew nothing about the Princess or kingdom he served—it was all blank. Not until reaching Hateno Village did amnesia stop making sense.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Treasured Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hello, this is my first TLoZ fic. I have no idea what the scene is like here but thank you for reading this! 💗

They said it was amnesia, and at first, Link supposed they were right. He recognized no one—nothing. Link did not remember a single bit of his life or near death, knew nothing about the Princess or kingdom he served—it was all blank.

So at first, he agreed. Amnesia. Impa helped fill in some blanks and so, on an intellectual level, Link understood what had happened: That there was a war; that many died; that he nearly did; that Princess Zelda, his sovereign, was as trapped as he’d been the past 100 years…

Not until reaching Hateno Village to meet with Impa’s sister, Purah, did amnesia stop making sense.

A strange familiarity with the trees surrounding the dirt road that took him up to the main entrance of Hateno did it. It hit Link not as a shock, but like a soft embrace, slowly warming him up on the inside—like he was returning home. The trees seemed a little smaller than he felt they should be, but they were _right_ somehow.

Where Link had no concrete memories, there were _feelings_. An overwhelming sense of duty he’d never thought to question tugged at him, propelled him forward with each task he was given. He had not questioned the orders from King Rhoam’s ghost to complete quests in abandoned shrines. Not once had he thought, “Are you sure?” when Impa explained he was the Hylian Champion from 100 years past. He accepted it all.

And so, amnesia no longer quite fit, and it was all because of those trees. Phantoms of experiences past: laughter, joy, pain, grief, loss…Each one bubbled inside him with ho home, no root—he couldn’t determine the source, but they were all _there_ running through him like the life-blood coursing through his veins.

Stepping through the arch to enter the village proper was surreal. He’d arrived in the dead of night, head-to-toe in Sheikah stealth armor, and scared the life out of Hateno’s self-appointed, pitchfork-brandishing ‘guard’. From there, he went straight to the Myahm Agana Shrine, activated it for fast-travel, and teleported back to Dueling Peaks Stable to board his horse. Only after all that did Link finally let himself feel the exhaustion of the past weeks and book a room to sleep.

* * *

He sleeps for an entire day and night.

In the morning on that second day, Link declares the bed was well worth the 80 rupees he’d paid, rejuvenating his aching body enough to recover from the damage he’d taken. As the Hylian Champion, Link was allegedly a master swordsman, but after a century’s worth of slumber, there was the subsequent loss of his apparent skill. Though he instinctively knew more than an amnesiac should—more proof for his new theory—a gang of blue moblins and a surprise Lynel had still given him a run for his money, leaving him exhausted and half-dead.

He thanks the inn keeper’s daughter, Prima, and heads out to investigate what was so special about Hateno Village that a hundred years of sleep couldn’t erase. For a second, he feels disappointed at boarding his horse—like he should have kept the horse here instead of placing it in the care of the very capable Hylians over at Dueling Peaks Stable. But that was the best place for a horse right now. He’d ridden hard and long for days, his horse needed rest. It’s not like he could board it here, he thinks. Except that feels wrong somehow, too.

A visit to the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab would be prudent but the mystery of these feelings quickly becomes the priority. If he can remember what’s so special about this place, when he couldn’t remember how he’d almost died, then perhaps it will unlock everything else.

* * *

The people of Hateno Village are mostly friendly, greeting him not like a strange visitor, but like anybody else. It’s nice. A couple of people are startled by him, however. One young man plays at aloofness when Link approaches him but fails spectacularly to hide his obvious crush on the Ton Pu Innkeeper’s daughter. It does something to Link—to hear that—brings to the front of his mind one word: _Mipha_

What is a ‘mipha’? Or perhaps who? He’s unsure, but it makes him want to help, and that feels like a memory on its own. It reminds him of his need to serve.

 _To serve_.

He was a champion, and that was what champions did, didn’t they?

Link makes a note to find out what things Prima of the Ton Pu Inn likes to help Manny, the ‘aloof’-boy, and continues on his way.

His next encounter is another strange one, though if one were to watch him, Link’s actions are probably just as strange. He’d managed to snag blue flame from a weird-looking hearth north of Hateno, and was in the process of lighting the lanterns in the village when he took some— _shortcuts_. Perhaps looking for unlit lanterns while cutting through someone’s yard, jumping fences, was not the _polite_ way to do things, but it was the most efficient.

It’s in one of these yards he meets a lady standing stock-still, clutching a broom in her hands, and staring out at nothing. The sight is enough to throw anyone off and when she notices Link staring it’s like all her faculties come back online.

“Hey! This is private property here! Don’t make me call…uh…someone!” The woman shouts, clutching her broom even harder. Link feels his eyes grow two sizes and suddenly the woman is apologizing. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice of me at all. You’re not a weirdo—I can tell. You’re probably a great person to talk to. Oh, no! There I go again, just talking with no purpose. I get carried away and just don’t know when to quit. It really drives my husband crazy when I just can’t find my point. I guess…Could you just go somewhere else, please? I’m sorry for speaking so harshly…Please enjoy this apology egg.”

She hands Link an egg. A single egg. Where was she even keeping it when her hands were occupied by the broom? Her hair? He accepts it graciously nonetheless and decides not to think about why it doesn’t feel weird that the people here are so strange.

* * *

When he arrived, Link had mostly ignored his surroundings in favor of activating the local shrine as quickly as possible before passing out. Now, he studies the out-of-place box-shaped houses near the shrine with intense curiosity. A man in bright-pink pants tells him they’re built by his company: Bolson Construction.

“Modern,” the man calls them. The colors are nice but they remind Link too much of the metal boxes he sometimes finds scattered around Hylia and in shrines—boxes stamped with the Hylian crest, the sight of which leaves him with nagging guilt over not yet being strong enough to fight Ganon and help Princess Zelda.

A different man—one with an enormous thatch of hair in a tall…dome?—calls him ‘studly’, and when Link raises a brow so high it almost gives him a headache, the man clarifies it’s because he thinks Link would do well working construction. Hmm. He’d never thought about it—wouldn’t be such a bad thing to do, to build homes for others.

“Does your name end in ‘son,’ by any chance, young man?” The dome-haired guy asks, and Link shakes his head ‘no’. “Ah, that’s too bad, Bolson Construction has a rule, anybody that works for us must have a name ending in ‘son’. It creates a sense of family—or so the boss says. Well, better get back to work! We’re demolishing an old house here. Whoever owned it left to fight in the war and never came back. It’s been sitting empty for years so the villagers decided to demolish it.”

For some reason, Link has the sudden urge to buy that house. Bolson of Bolson Construction takes one look at his face and asks if he wants to buy it and they’re both surprised when Link nods in the affirmative.

“Really? Well…alright. Bring me 30 bundles of wood—materials, you understand—and…let’s say…3000 rupees and it’s yours. Sound like a deal?”

For some reason, it does.

* * *

Several trips to Kakariko Village and Satori Mountain for Endura Carrots help pay for the purchase of this home. (Though, perhaps Link should worry about what kind of karmic retribution awaits him for blowing up a bomb in the middle of a pack of Blupees for the money that paid for the rest of that house). He takes his wood bundles and his money and Bolson marvels at Link’s ability to buy something so large at ‘such a young age’. No one needs to know he’s over 100 years old so Link lets it go.

“There’s an old weapons case still in the house, consider it a housewarming gift,” Bolson says when they finalize the transaction. Link nods his thanks and crosses the bridge toward the house he just bought. It occurs to him it might have been foolish to buy a house he had yet to see, but that thought flies out the window as soon as it’s in view.

To anyone else, the purchase _would_ have been foolish. The house is in dire need of repairs after standing empty for 100 years and is _missing its front door_ , but all of that is meaningless in the face of familiarity.

This house was his. Not just now, but also before he’d almost died. This was his house!

He’s as sure of that fact as he was when Impa called him _Champion_. It’s a knowledge Link feels down in the marrow of his bones and etched across them like it forms the foundation of his very being. He supposes it does. Aside from _Hylian_ and _Champion_ , Link knows now he is from Hateno, that he grew up here. And in that knowledge, more truths are housed: _Champion of the Goddess Hylia, the Triforce of Courage, Bastion of Bravery_.

He moves through the broken doorway a little lightheaded in awe and snippets of a life long gone flash in his mind. _Being too small to reach the dinner table…The worried look on his mother’s face when the doctor told her he’d never speak…His father teaching him to ride a horse…Their funeral when he was much too young for them to have gone…_

There’s a bittersweet joy that aches in his chest at the memories. When he crosses the threshold fully, Link heads straight for the weapons case on the wall. When not training with it, this case housed The Master Sword, he’s sure of it. He scratches mindlessly at the tingle on his left hand—his sword-hand—right over the birthmark shaped like a triangle. Where was his sword?

Laughter bubbles out of him, awkward and a little too quiet for how laughter usually sounds, and he sighs as the sting of un-shed tears pricks his eyes. There is joy in having things fall into place: There was a stable outside, he could board his horse here; Mipha was his—well, it’s complicated; the people didn’t seem strange to Link because he was one of them, maybe just as strange; and of course he’d wanted to buy this house—it was always his.

Giving the weapons case a gentle pat, Link leaves his house—his _home_ —and heads back toward the inn. Tomorrow, he will go see Purah. Tomorrow, he will resume his champion’s quest and his duty to Hylia and Princess Zelda. Tomorrow, he’ll find out what happened to his sword.

But for today, Link thanks Hateno for welcoming him home. He does not have amnesia. At least, not anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I picked up BotW again over the holidays and could not stop thinking about this. I don't know if I read it somewhere or if I fever-dreamed it but Link in BotW is originally from Hateno and that is actually his house. I couldn't stop thinking about that so the result was this little fic.  
> One of my BFFs pointed out it is in-game canon that Link speaks in BotW, but I deliberately chose to ignore that when writing this fic because I simply do not vibe with it. As a neurodivergent person, Link not speaking Means Something to me, so yeah.  
> Anyways, let me know what you think, and thank you again for reading :)
> 
> [You can find me on tumblr.](https://bichen-suibian.tumblr.com)


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